Final Jeopardy: Nobel-Winning Novelists (5-25-21)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (5/25/2021) in the category “Nobel-Winning Novelists” was:

Falsely accused of murder, a character in his 1948 novel becomes “tyrant over the whole county’s white conscience”

Semi-final No. 2 of the 2021 Tournament of Champions features:4x champ Ryan Bilger, a grad student from Macungie, PA; 4x champ Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, a librarian from Portland, OR.; and 5x champ Kevin Walsh, a story analyst orig. from Williamstown, NJ

Round 1 Categories: Bestsellers – Capital Hills – Holidays & Festivals – The Family Business – Tournaments – Double the Double Vowels

Ryan found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Capital Hills” under the $1,000 clue, with 13 clues left after it. He was in second place with $2,000, $200 less than Veronica in the lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.

Local legend says this state capital’s name was inspired by a view of the James river from atop Libby Hill show

Ryan finished in the lead with $7,400. Veronica was second with $2,600 and Kevin was last with negative $1,400. No clues went uncovered.

Round 2 Categories: Medical Milestones – Rock Bands – The Finest of Fine Arts – Vegetables – The “TOC” – A Palace in History

Veronica found the first Daily Double in “The Finest of Fine Arts” under the $1,200 clue on the 2nd pick. She was in second place with $4,200 now, $3,200 less than Ryan’s lead. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.

In this Tchaikovsky ballet, each suitor hands Aurora a flower during the “Rose Adagio” show

Ryan got the last Daily Double in “Medical Milestones” under the $1,200 clue on the 10th pick. In second place with $11,000, he had $600 less than Veronica’s lead. He bet $5,000 and only got one of the names so he was WRONG.

File under “S” in the 1950’s these 2 microbiologists each developed a polio vaccine show

Veronica finished in the lead with $16,000. Ryan was next with $13,600 and Kevin was in third place with $3,000. No clues went uncovered.

TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS WILLIAM FAULKNER?

“Intruder in the Dust” was published by William Faulkner in 1948. The novel explores the theme of race relations as well as racial injustice in the mid-20th century South when an African-American man named Lucas Beauchamp is wrongfully accused of murder. According to Wikipedia, Lucas Beauchamp and his wife, Molly, first appeared in Faulkner’s 1942 short fiction collection, “Go Down, Moses.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 was awarded to William Faulkner, not for this particular novel but “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.” In the 1940s, there were only 6 Nobel Prize laureates in literature as no prize was awarded from 1940 through 1943. They were: 1944, Johannes V. Jensen (Denmark); 1945, Gabriela Mistral (Chile); 1946, Herman Hesse (Germany); 1947, André Gide (France); 1948, T.S. Eliot (UK); 1949, William Faulkner (USA).



Kevin went with Baldwin. That cost him $3,000 and left him with nothing.

Ryan got it right. He bet $2,402 and finished with $16,002.

Veronica got it, too. She bet $15,400 and won the game with $31,400. Veronica Vichit-Vadakan is the second finalist in the ToC. Check back in tomorrow to see Jennifer Quail, Jason Zuffranieri and Nibir Sarma compete for the last spot in the finals.

Final Jeopardy (5/25/2021) Ryan Bilger, Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, Kevin Walsh

2 triple stumpers from ROCK BANDS:

($800) There “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” for this band with a name that includes a pachyderm

($2000) Scott Weiland fronted this ’90s band that sang us an “Interstate Love Song”

More clues on Page 2

2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Poetry and the Movies”

Robert Lowell’s “For the Union Dead” honored the 54th Massachusetts, the infantry unit in this 1989 film that won 3 Oscars show

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20 Responses

  1. Cece says:

    Ryan looked deflated; Veronica overcome with emotion. Bittersweet ending to a great game..

  2. Dal Higbee says:

    Ryan Bilger: It was “Sabin” that cost me my game.

  3. Howard says:

    Gotta root for VVV because we both live in Portland. She’s now guaranteed at least 50K. Didn’t hurt the librarian a bit to get Novels for FJ and a best-seller category earlier. I saw the movie “The Last Hurrah” back in 1960, so that one I actually knew. Never heard of the Faulkner novel, though.

    One of last week’s defeated quarter-finalists wrote on Facebook the other day that the 3 semis are the best games she’s ever seen. I wouldn’t say that, but the first 2 were pretty good.

  4. Jeopardy! lover says:

    Oh man, Ryan must be beating himself up because he bet $5,000 on that Daily Double. If he had bet $2,500 or less, he would have won if he wagered enough to cover Veronica if she doubled.

  5. Kathy Root says:

    Veronica placed the big bet for two reasons: “go big or go home” (likely based on the category, since she’s a librarian) and also because the semi-finalist with the highest total is the contestant who chooses first (occupying the daily champion podium on the far left) for the ToC finals.

  6. max says:

    Baffled by the 15,400 wager.

  7. Lou says:

    A great game played today by all the players and veronica has actually improved a lot since her previous four game run. I think Jennifer might do the same thing that veronica did but we will see how Jason and nibir will do as they are equally competitive.

    Which author has the name Baldwin was Kevin referring to?

    • Jacob Ska says:

      Lou , I’m guessing Kevin was referring to James Baldwin who was an African American author. He wrote about race issues. I read his book “The Fire Next Time” which is not a novel. Hopefully Kevin will pop in and let us know for sure.

    • Richard Corliss says:

      I think Jennifer or Nibir will win. Jason is my least favorite.

  8. Richard Corliss says:

    And then there were 5.

  9. Kevin Cheng says:

    Well we’ll see how tomorrow’s game goes for Jennifer, Jason, and Nibir.

  10. Kevin Cheng says:

    So far we have Sam and Veronica waiting in the wings to come back on Thursday and Friday to play for 250,000. It will be a rematch between them since they first compete each other last Friday but Veronica had the highest score in the semi-final so far.